LTIR Loophole

For those of you new here, my blog focuses on all things hockey. I mostly like to focus on the National Hockey League, and this week I will be doing just that. In particular, I am going to talk about a recent topic of controversy within the NHL. It is called the LTIR Loophole.

LTIR stands for Long-Term Injury Reserve. Long-Term Injury Reserve is a rule in the NHL that aims to help out teams that have an injured player who will be out for a substantial amount of time. If the player is injured and will be unable to play for the rest of the regular season, a team can place this player on LTIR, effectively removing his payment from the salary cap for this time period. For reference, the salary cap is the maximum amount of money a team can spend on its players’ salaries. Teams cannot go past the salary cap without facing serious penalty. However, the LTIR brings about a loophole in the rule.

Since a player’s salary will not count towards the salary cap if he is on LTIR, teams can sign additional players to play for them under this newfound cap space. This was meant to allow them to bring in additional players since they are essentially down a man for an entire season, however teams quickly began taking advantage of this. This is because the player on LTIR is then able to come back during the playoffs, and teams can keep both the returned player and newly signed players with no penalty for violating the salary cap.

For example, the Tampa Bay Lighting used this loophole to their advantage during their 2021 Stanley Cup playoff run and ultimate Cup win. Their star player, Nikita Kucherov, suffered a major injury during the regular season. The Lightning then placed him on LTIR, as they were unsure when he would be able to return and needed extra players in his absence. This would be fine if Kucherov returned when he was healthy, but this was not the case. Although fully recovered before the start of the playoffs, the Tampa Bay front office kept Kucherov on LTIR until the beginning of the postseason, so they were able to keep Kucherov and all of the newly signed players without any penalty. Because of this loophole, the team was able to play a roster that was $18 million over the allotted NHL salary cap. Naturally, many other teams and fans were outraged by this. It is unfair that the Lighting were able to play extra players without having to adhere to the strict budget that the other NHL teams had to follow.

Recently, the Las Vegas Golden Knights have pulled a similar move. After a botched trade deal that led to a breach of the salary cap, the Golden Knights suspiciously placed a few players on LTIR, removing their salary payments and putting them back under the salary cap. While this seems wrong and unfair, there is technically no current rule against this. However, the NHL general managers are collectively meeting next week, and rumor has it that a discussion involving the LTIR Loophole is on the agenda. I really hope this loophole is fixed soon so no more teams can circumvent the salary cap, as it is not fair to the rest of the teams abiding by the rules.

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